Joe Biden makes late game for the Republican stronghold of Texas in the final days of the election campaign

The Biden campaign is officially doing what was previously unthinkable and is making a serious game for the traditionally Republican state of Texas.

Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris will travel to three locations in Texas on Friday US time: Fort Worth, Houston and McAllen.

Meanwhile, billionaire and former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg decided to spend millions of dollars on a belated spike in pro-Biden ads in the state.

Winning Texas has long been a pipe dream for Democrats. He has voted Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections and has rarely been competitive.

Donald Trump won it by a margin of 800,000 votes in 2016, or about 9 percent of the popular vote.

It could be insane that Joe Biden is throwing resources into the state this time, too. But his 38 electoral votes are, it seems, too attractive for him to pass up.

It goes without saying that winning Texas would guarantee you victory in the election.

The current poll average has Trump leading by 2.6 percent in Texas, though some polls in recent weeks have shown Biden to be tied or slightly ahead.

Yesterday, Cook’s Political Report, which attempts to forecast the chances of candidates in each state, removed Texas from its “lean Republican” category and labeled it a “pitch.”

“Texas is a state where Biden doesn’t need to win, but it is clearly more competitive than ever,” he wrote, citing tight polls in the state.

“A large increase in early voting (as of Oct. 26, nearly half of Texas registered voters had already cast their vote) suggests that we could see record turnout in a state that has added many new residents since 2016. That too adds a level of uncertainty to the equation.

“Surveys at the state and district level show that Biden performs well in and around the suburban metropolitan areas of the state, but underperforms Latino voters.

“It’s also the case that we don’t have a lot of experience with Texas as a battlefield state. Neither do national pollsters.”

Dave Wasserman, who oversees the Cook Report’s analysis of the congressional races, has noted that polling errors in 2016 and 2018 tended to underestimate the strength of the Democrats in the American Southwest (and the strength of the Republicans). on the Rust Belt).

Any similar mistake this time would cast doubt on the outcome in Texas.

Other signs adding to the intrigue include a staggering number of Texans who have decided to cast their votes early. The state has already received 8.5 million early votes, representing more than 90 percent of its total share in 2016.

A large part of that early voting is among people under the age of 30, who are generally the least likely to vote in America’s voluntary voting system.

As of this writing, about 900,000 young people have already voted in Texas, almost triple the number who had voted at the same time four years ago. Voters in this demographic tend to favor Democrats by massive margins.

This is also the first time in many years that Democratic congressional candidates in Texas have raised more money for their campaigns than Republicans.

On the other hand, the hopes of Democrats have been dashed in Texas countless times, most recently in 2018, when his highly publicized Senate candidate, Beto O’Rourke, failed to oust incumbent Republican Ted Cruz.

It was a close race, with Cruz prevailing 51-48. But a loss is a loss, whatever the margin, and many Democrats actually believed O’Rourke was in contention.

Biden himself has not campaigned in Texas. It will appear today in the most competitive state of Florida.

Earlier this week, he spoke to a local Texas television station, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.

“The lone star state has a chance to turn blue again,” Biden told journalist Julie Fine, though he emphasized that the campaign “is not losing focus on the many roads to 270.”

“We are on the air in Texas in English and Spanish, and we are putting a lot of money into Texas. And I think not only (we have) an opportunity, but I think the Democrats are going to take back the House, and we really have some candidates. good guys running too, “he said.

“So I feel good about Texas.”

Fine brought up his most controversial comment – many would call it a slip – in the final presidential debate a week ago, when he said a Biden administration would “walk away” from the oil industry.

That industry has a particularly large presence in Texas.

“A lot of people here in Texas got really worried when you said that. What do you tell them?” she asked.

“Well, they should be concerned, if it was interpreted the way Trump is saying it,” Biden responded.

“The initial discussion was, would you remove oil subsidies? Oil companies get $ 40 billion in 10 years in subsidies. They don’t need those subsidies. We should invest that in research and development.

“The oil companies are not going to shut down at all. Texas is also one of the largest providers of wind and solar power in the world. You are an energy state across the board.

“So no, the oil industry is not going to disappear. And the oil industry itself, if it realizes what it is doing, it is expanding beyond oil. Therefore, people are not going to lose their jobs. In fact, we are going to maintain and create millions of more jobs. “